On World CBT Day 2026, EABCT highlights the role of cognitive behavioural approaches in responding to conflict, displacement, and large-scale adversity. This page brings together the humanitarian context, EABCT’s response, key resources, and a special World CBT Day event.
Feature – World CBT Day 2026 event
To mark World CBT Day, EABCT has organised a dedicated event focusing on the application of CBT in humanitarian contexts.
Valentyna Parobiy EABCT Representative and Past President of the Ukrainian CBT Association
“CBT in Action: Mental Health Support in Humanitarian Crises. The reality of life under war – the Ukrainian CBT Association experience and learning.”
This session offers an important opportunity to hear directly from colleagues working within a context of active conflict, and to reflect on the application of CBT principles under extreme and rapidly changing conditions.
CBT in Action: Mental Health Support in Humanitarian Crises
World CBT Day, led by the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (WCCBT), is an annual global initiative that highlights the impact and reach of cognitive behavioural approaches in addressing real-world challenges. It aims to promote evidence-based practice, strengthen international collaboration, and increase public and professional awareness of how CBT can contribute to improving mental health and wellbeing across diverse cultural and socio-economic contexts.
The 2026 theme, “CBT in Action: Mental Health Support in Humanitarian Crises”, focuses on the role of CBT in responding to conflict, displacement, and large-scale adversity.
Humanitarian context in Europe
In recent years, Europe has faced a convergence of humanitarian crises that have brought the psychological impact of adversity into sharp and immediate focus. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has not only led to widespread displacement across the continent, but has directly affected colleagues, services, and communities within the EABCT network. Many have continued their clinical work under conditions of danger, disruption, and loss, while also supporting individuals and families experiencing profound trauma.
Other events—including conflicts in Europe and neighbouring regions, humanitarian crises affecting populations across the Middle East and beyond, continued migration pressures at Europe’s borders, and major natural disasters such as the 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye—have further shaped this landscape.
Across these contexts, CBT practitioners have been working with people who have lost homes, loved ones, and a sense of safety, often while navigating unfamiliar systems, languages, and cultures. These are not distant or abstract events—they are realities affecting our colleagues, our member associations, and the people they serve.
Humanitarian crises also have wider psychological impacts across societies. Individuals and communities may experience fear, division, stigma, or discrimination linked to conflict, including those who may feel associated—rightly or wrongly—with events beyond their control, and who may experience hostility, marginalisation, or identity-based threat within European communities.
As a result, many clinicians across Europe are increasingly working with trauma, grief, displacement, and ongoing uncertainty as part of everyday practice.
EABCT response and resources in practice
In response, the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (EABCT) established the Humanitarian Crises Resources Working Group in 2022 to support therapists working in these contexts. This has included the development of practical resources for clinicians supporting people affected by the war in Ukraine and displaced across Europe, guidance on working with traumatised refugees from diverse conflict and disaster settings, and materials developed in relation to the earthquakes in Türkiye.
Resource Hub
EABCT’s Humanitarian Crises Resource Hub brings together practical materials to support this work in real-world settings, including curated guidance and a series of training videos covering core competencies such as:
-
- Evidence based treatments for PTSD
- Psychological First Aid (PFA)
- Adaptation of CBT interventions for low-resource and high-adversity contexts
EABCT’s Humanitarian Crises Resources
Evidence and international guidance
This work is underpinned by international evidence and guidance. The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the important role of cognitive behavioural approaches in addressing the mental-health consequences of humanitarian crises, recommending trauma-focused CBT as a frontline intervention for post-traumatic stress and related conditions.
WHO guidance also supports the use of brief, structured CBT-based interventions that can be delivered at scale, including by trained non-specialists. Systematic review evidence indicates that psychological therapies, including CBT, can reduce symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety among populations affected by conflict, displacement and other crises.
Ethical framework
EABCT’s Ethical Statement on Man-Made Humanitarian Crises complements these clinical resources by setting out a shared ethical framework, grounded in the Association’s Ethical Charter, and highlighting the mental-health impact of humanitarian crises alongside the responsibilities of CBT associations and professionals:
EABCT Ethical Statement on Man-Made Humanitarian Crises
Together, these resources illustrate how CBT can be mobilised—both clinically and at scale—to support individuals and communities affected by humanitarian crises.
Call to action
Explore EABCT’s resources, share with colleagues, and join the ongoing effort to strengthen evidence-based mental health support in humanitarian contexts across Europe and beyond.